Summer goes way too fast!

NOTE: You can see photos of the projects in progress down the right hand side of my blog. And if you click on the picture it will take you to Flickr to see a bigger picture. And Ravelry members can click on the name of the project in the side bar to go to the project pages for the details...like yarn, needles and notes. There is no cost to be a Ravelry member and the wait to get in is about a day or so. (I waited months!) Ravelry is still in it's Beta stage which is why they are still using the invitation method.

Update on the Pi Cloth...since that was pretty much my last blog entry. The pattern is almost completed. I will be teaching a class in October for this cloth at my LYS. First class. I'm nervous and excited at the same time.

Black Olives...That is the summer stole I've been concentrating on the last couple weeks since summer is escaping so fast. I'm very close to finishing it. Just one short edge and about 4 pattern repeats left of the edge I'm working on. And then blocking.

Nephew's socks...That was another project I worked hard at this summer (although my knitting attention has been spread among a host of projects). I got one sock up past the heel with multiple fittings taken before my nephew leaves again for college. I've even got the second sock started and am past the toe. I'm knitting them toe to cuff.

Goddess Knits Anniversary Mystery shawl is taking a back seat at the moment while I concentrate on these more time sensitive projects. But I can't wait to pick that up again. I've seen so many finished ones and they are all beautiful and different. (rav link)

Summer Siesta is taking a siesta. I'm not happy with the bottom. But I like the lacy part. Hate to frog the lacy part to get to the bottom but that is what needs to be done. The lacy part would make a great light weight produce bag.

Here's a finished item.....


I cast on, knit, did a crochet bind off and blocked all in one day! This is Snowflake Star by Judy Gibson. My Rav project page entry.

So you are thinking (and so am I) that some of these projects should be further along or finished by now. We've had some non knitting projects going this summer as well. Besides plenty of swimming, a multitude of sleepovers (more rightly dubbed awakeovers) and being "helpers" at Vacation Bible School we also painted the girls new bedroom. We had some water leakage and this is what resulted...


The room was previously all car-siding like you see in the left side of the picture. Now it is drywall and BRIGHT! Even the car-siding you see in that picture is now painted blue and the closet door painted green (you can see the door laying in front of the bedding in the next picture.)

Here's a picture of the bedding we found at Target AFTER the room was painted. It matches so well it almost looks like we had the bedding first and chose the room colors from that.



And for those of you not familiar with the power of Kahlua. Let me show you what it can do:



That is the back right burner. A crack also runs through the front right burner and the front left burner. The back left burner escaped the powers of Kahlua and remains the sole non-cracked burner.

Why did the Kahlua bottle want to jump off the refrigerator to fight the stove? Well, he was dragged into the fight by the strap of the water bottle bag. Or more correctly....I apparently placed the Kahlua bottle on the strap of the water bag the night before when I "drizzled" Kahlua over my ice cream and smashed up Oreos. What an expensive sundae (or Sunday...since it happened at 7:15am Sunday morning on our way out to early church.)

The stove is/was over 10 years old so we can't just replace the top. Looks like we'll be getting a coil stove again. Good thing I still have all my cast iron pans...right mom!?!

On the bright side...the Kahlua bottle didn't break and I have since "drizzled" more Kahlua over smashed up oreos and ice cream. It has been relocated to the counter top until a more permanent place of residence can be found or I run out of oreos and ice cream. (Like that might happen!)

Mini Sweaters

I saw some cute little sweaters on the Loose Ends Christmas tree and was reminded of the pattern I had to make some for my family (5), my sister's family (4), my parents (2) and dh's work friends (15). It got a little carried away...especially since I started them in December. But it was so much fun using the different sock yarns I've got...some of which haven't become socks yet.

The finished measurements are 2" high and 1 3/4" for the body. Measuring tip of cuff to other cuff is 3 3/4". The ribbing was done on size 1 bamboo dpns and the rest was done on size 2's. I mistakenly used size 1's for a whole sweater and it really did make quite a difference in size. I gave that one away to a neighbor so can't measure it.

The pattern is here. It's the same site that has that cute bunny I posted about not long ago. The pattern is done in the round from the neck down. Once you get to the sleeves you do those flat. Then back to the body in the round. Sew up the sleeves weaving the yarn to take care of any underarm holes. It is a perfectly functional sweater if you had something that small you could dress! Done with different size needles with different size yarn you'd get a differet size sweater.

For the hangers...I bent some craft wire using a nail knitting board to form the bottom of the triangle. Did some twisting by hand and then with a smooth pliers to be sure the end was not pokey. Snipped the wire from the roll and formed the little hook over something roundish...the seam ripper handle was handy for that.

Ornaments

Here are some pictures of Christmas ornaments we made for our local yarn store. Various businesses decorated indoor trees. The public was able to vote on their favorite trees. It was for some charity. Once the viewing was over the ornaments went back to the yarn store and were sold with the proceeds going to the local food pantry.

The Christmas tree and star were made by knitting a rectangular piece and felting it. After drying, I cut out the shapes. It was tough cutting...especially the tree. Ended up with a blister.

We then needle felted on the tree. On the star we sprayed a little glue and sprinkled with a really fine glitter.

I forget how many of each we made. A dozen or so of the tree and star, 3 or so pairs of socks and maybe 6 stockings. Something like that.

Even my dd got into the act by making about a dozen of these scrubbie ornaments. By putting together three different scrubbies it makes a cute little ball.

I also knit a bunch of little socks for Christmas ornaments this year. They didn't all get their pictures taken unfortunately. Some were pairs crocheted together. And some were just mini Christmas Stockings stuffed with chenille stem candy canes.

I used the smallest numbers in the Cool Socks Warm Feet (Basic Sock pattern) for those. Size #1 dpn. One stocking pictured is my first attempt at doing mosaic knitting.

I even kitchenered the toes! I love doing the kitchener technique thanks to the video linked to the right and Queen Kahuna's mantra "Opposite On".